The ECO Secretary General Ambassador Khusrav Noziri participated in the Summit-level Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Contact Group on Post-Pandemic Global Recovery, held on March 2, 2023 in Baku.

The ECO Secretary General Ambassador Khusrav Noziri participated in the Summit-level Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Contact Group on Post-Pandemic Global Recovery, held on March 2, 2023 in Baku.

Heads of State/Government, Foreign Ministers, Ambassadors of NAM Member States accredited to the Republic of Azerbaijan and heads of several international organizations attended the event.

While chairing the Summit, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan H.E. Ilham Aliyev mentioned the relevance and growing importance of the NAM. “The NAM played a monumental role in decolonization process and today it can play a more important role to eliminate neo-colonialism, which deeply plagues the contemporary world”, said the President. The President also advocated for a greater representation of NAM countries in international institutions.

The Summit spotlighted realising Sustainable Development Goals, upholding and reforming multilateralism, overcoming socio-economic challenges, and bridging widening chasm between the developing and the developed countries in contemporary world.

The ECO Secretary General commended Azerbaijan’s chairmanship of the NAM (2019-2023) and appreciated the excellent organization of the Summit.

“Post-Pandemic recovery is crucial as COVID-19, which, with no exception, hit developed and developing countries alike, afflicting the world in unprecedented ways. The pandemic took toll on human lives, nosedived national economies, shrank international trade, halted travel and tourism, disrupted educational system, overwhelmed health sector, laid off workers at an unforeseen scale, and hit the poor and vulnerable hardest. The cost and damage, it bore and inflicted, is beyond simple calculations”, said the Secretary General.

He emphasized that the multilateralism and south-south cooperation were the best antidote to conventional and unconventional challenges afflicting developing countries.

While emphasing the importance of inter-organizational cooperation, the Secretary General put forward the proposal of institutionalising ties betweeen the ECO and the NAM.